Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, since this technically references a homebrew, but how plausible is it for a understrength Space Marine 'squad' (there's literally only maybe 3 Firstborn Astartes from a reserve company tactical squad), to be deliberately assigned as a escort for a mildly important tax administrator? And once they arrive at the administrator's office, they just remain there on station because Chapter HQ didn't relay any further orders?

For further context, this is not a non-combat posting, there's actual hostilities, like cultist attacks and assassination attempts, etc. So the Marines aren't just standing around a office polishing their armour and boots looking pretty. They actually have to put bolt rounds into belligerant heads on a fairly regular basis.

Garrisons do exist, ref the Imperial Fist presence in Hive Primus of Necromunda.

Bodyguard for a tax collector? If their Commanding Officer (either locally, Company Captain, Chapter Master or Primarch) ordered it so? Yes.

But nobody else in The Imperium can really make such a demand. Requests, yes. Requests with varying risks should you say no? Yes. But requests all the same, and at all times the Marines are free to refuse, with no further justification required.

A scenario where such a request might be granted could include accompanying the Tax Collector, where the person being trouble about paying their tax is also being watched as a rabble rouser, and so it’s a way to, uh….impress upon said rabble rouser The Imperium sees all*, and it’s generally advisable to just do as you’re bloody well told.

*we know it doesn’t, but they’re not to know we’re not watching them.

Space Wolves have the Wolfblade, which "is a small unit assigned to Terra as bodyguards for Navigators of House Belisarius". It's possible other Chapters have similar arrangements.

I would generally say that there needs to be some backstory justification for why a mid level tax collector has been granted a space marine bodyguard. Its entirely plausible, but it would need to be explicit.

Just one potential explantation off the top of my head.

This tax administrator's family, which has held this position for many generations passed from father to son, in the past was involved with collecting the Tithe from several worlds in the chapter's territory. During a particularly difficult conflict when the chapter was finding supply difficult, the Tax Administrator pulled some strings and kept the chapter supplied in this crucial time. The chapter has ever since stationed a handful of marines to protect the individual holding this hereditary position.

There is also precedent for small Marine contingents to be attached to Rogue Trader expeditions, going all the way back to, well, Rogue Trader

Marine honour guards for sacred sites also appear, sometimes with members drawn from multiple Chapters involved in whatever event the sacred site relates to.

The idea is plausible, you just need to come up with a reason why a Marine Chapter has agreed to provide a bodyguard for a mid-level bureaucrat. Generally, if such postings are long term they are either in exchange for something (like House Belisarius providing navigators to the Space Wolves in exchange for a bodyguard) or to settle some real or perceived debt or similar honour-based reason (like guarding a sacred site/artefact or guarding a household who did a great service to the Chapter in the past).

If the posting is short term then you would expect there to be some immediate strategic or tactical benefit in an active warzone, which doesn't sound like the scenario you are angling for.

Edit: Grey Templar has given a great example of an honour debt reason above. His post came through whilst I was typing mine.

In addition to the excellent advice already posted in this thread, I could see a chapter also taking this as a training opportunity.

While marines are outsiders in the structure of the imperium, they still might benefit from learning how it works, how the cogs turn. It’s not all boarding actions and drop pods. At some point they are going to be in a large combined arms operation, and while they may be self-sufficient, the other forces are not. Or if on another detached detail later, they might need to know how to work the system to get resources they need.

Having a mid level tax guy (or anyone really) having a marine bodyguard is not normal. But it does happen. You just need a plausible reason.

Another thing to consider is how decisions are sometimes made. While not farseers, there are psychers (including inquisitors) using things like tarot cards to help guide them. If the planet has an important tithe, and issues with it could cause impacts sector wide, someone upstream might be pulling strings to arrange that it goes smoothly. And with corruption being what it is, mr. mid-level might be the best mix of talent, loyalty, and faith. So the strands of fate put him in a key spot to ensure everything works. Also, he might not be important now, but will be in 20 years. But won’t get there without help.

Depends on the story you want to tell.

We also see Custodes protecting Completely Random Spods at times, for reasons they never disclose.

Custodes are of course privy to information a Chapter won’t be, but that such a close protection detail is certainly unusual, but far from unheard of? I think it would be a poor argument Marines never follow suit.

First thought was "no, a space marine is a shock assault asset, putting them on stag duty is 1000% waste"

But theres an element of narrative freedom to exploit - do you really need to explain why there are three space marines guarding a tax collector?
40K used to be full of 'unanswered mysteries' which never get left alone to be mysteries proper.

If their HQ is cut off then presumably their ride home is also cut off?
They could be tooling around with a tax collector who will seize assets in lieu of payment and the marines are providing protection for the risky/dangerous asset seizures in return for an orbital shuttle or other spacefaring craft?

The latter has literally happened in at least William King's Wolfblade.

Also think beyond the Tax Collector. They might not be what's important to the Marine.

It might be a means for the Marines to send a representative to a world that they otherwise would have no reason to send one too. Some trumped up historical element (Tax collector's great great great uncle served with the Marines in the IG and perhaps just stood out enough for a mention in a logbook somewhere). So the Marines show honour by providing an honourguard for the Tax Collector.

Then it just so happens one of the worlds they visit happens to be one that the Marines want to have some communication in direct; some observation or show of force or such. Perhaps a world that's going a bit rogue, but isn't all the way there enough to justify sending forces. But enough that a marine turning up with the regular tax collection suddenly rattles some cages and reminds them that no where is out of reach. etc...



So there's political elements that might be way above the Tax Collector. Throw in a warpstorm and suddenly you've a marine trapped on a world where they otherwise wouldn't be etc.

It also creates an interesting dynamic where you've a tax collector who thinks they are the sole mission of the Marine to protect, then having to deal with the fact that they really sort of aren't

The tax collector is the recipient of an ancient and powerful set of bionics that, if they fell into the wrong hands, would lead to the very end of the Imperium. If anything, just 3 marines are not enough and there should be a full founding of marine chapters dedicated to this holy task.

I mean come on, it’s a ridiculous background. Go mental

Another angle that you could take for this is that many Space Marine chapters have a very honour centric culture to them. If a Chapter owed a large enough honour debt to someone, then I could see some Space Marines being assigned as such.

For example, say in the past, their chapter was embroiled in a deadly campaign, and they were trying to get support, but some kind of bureaucracy / red tape was preventing that. If this person had cut through that for them, even if it was just part of their job, and the support provided was enough to tip the balance and achieve victory, they could see it as a debt of honour in need of repayment. If this person's life was later in danger, it's very plausable that the Astartes could be assigned to bodyguard detail.

Thanks for the tips lads/ladettes/lasses.

Spire Tax Delegation

Bursar (rank XI) Elizabeth Van Lancette, Office of the Imperial Pursary, Estate Imperium, Adeptus Administratum.

Guardsman Damian Reynauld, 902nd Pontar Infantry.

4th Tactical Squad, 7th Reserve Company, Sanguine Reavers
- Three Marines equipped with Boltguns and Mark V 'Heresy' Power Armour


The rough outline i'm currently going with is that these three Tactical Space Marines are from some insignificant financially-strapped no-name Chapter of the 8th Founding.

Their Chapter Master was 'very politely asked' to provide a 'suitable' escort for a minor Imperial functionary. The Chapter Master, not being particularly impressed at receiving such menial request, nonetheless felt obligated to do the bare minimum in consideration of past political and historical events and so promptly passed it off to his 7th Captain, who in turn dumped the whole task onto a very understrength squad of reservist Tactical Marines.

And so, 4th Tactical Squad (understrength) took up berth on a passing merchant vessel, and from there, headed to the rendezvous point, where they linked up with the minor functionary and ..... have remained planetside for over a decade. Of course, it hasn't all been parades and sentry duty for the Marines. The rebels have been consistently attacking the tax station as it is the most obvious sign of Imperial rule, and most blatant symbol of their discontent. Unofficially, the Chapter wishes to gain political favour as a quid pro quo, as well as live-fire training, as well as investigate the possibility of commencing recruitment from the planet.

For Bursar Lancette, her posting has been a exercise in fustration. From having to deal with uppity local nobility (who constantly stonewall her, deny her resources, and undermine her at every turn, ie, funding the rebels) and the lack of luxurious amenities, her future promotion (and comfortable retirement) depends upon fixing the tax deficit in a city which is in open rebellion against the throne (and by extension, her personage). The frequent firefights going on a few hundred metres down the road does little for her peace of mind of course (nor do the occasionally mortar attacks on her office).

For her escort, Guardsman Reynauld, it has been a safe, if boring, assignment. Keeping an eye on a bureacrat who spends all her time inside doing paperwork (and only occasionally venturing out to formal social events) is not particularly taxing, punctuated only by the excitement of physically throwing out belligerant locals. The lack of any commissariat oversight is just a bonus.

Thoughts on this storyline?

Sounds entertaining so far. Some potential areas for development from my point of view would include: how are the marines resupplied and refitted? Bolt rounds and chai sword replacement parts might be easy to come by, but their armour is going to need some TLC on the regular. Can you twiddle in a decent techpriest as part of the team?

Also, regardless of the standing of the chapter, they are the Holy Emperor’s Angels of Death. That is a heck of a lot of political power right there. Ms Lancette should get to throw her(their) weight around for fun and profit to the Imperial purse occasionally

To be honest, Astartes accompanying a Tax Collector probably wouldn’t see a great deal of combat.

Their sheer, near mind bending physical presence is gonna do a lot of the heavy lifting, given their near mythical status with The Imperium. Even with rebels, I’d expect any such engagements to be pretty short and brutal affairs.

What could be fun is Lancette being their de facto command giver, and it never really occuring to her to set the boys loose to gut the insurgency.

 Flinty wrote:
Sounds entertaining so far. Some potential areas for development from my point of view would include: how are the marines resupplied and refitted? Bolt rounds and chai sword replacement parts might be easy to come by, but their armour is going to need some TLC on the regular. Can you twiddle in a decent techpriest as part of the team?

I was considering a techmarine, but felt that would increase the scope of things wayyyyy too much. As it stands, i'm going for having locals do the resupply. Say, Lancette nationalising a local munitions factory and converting it so it starts churning out bolt rounds and spare parts for boltguns and armour componentry. Labour to be provided by servitors and indentured servitude of those who don't pay their taxes. Obviously, nationalising a munitions factory, and then converting it, and then getting the blueprints, and then shipping out the products all requires money, which naturally adds to the deficit as well as Lancette's headache.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

What could be fun is Lancette being their de facto command giver, and it never really occuring to her to set the boys loose to gut the insurgency.

That's one of the satirical takes im trying for. The Marines think she's in charge because of the way the orders were relayed to them by HQ, Lancette thinks she has no authority over the literal angels of death and is too nervous to pull rank on them while the locals think the Marines are in charge so they're insufferable to Lancette

Get Henry Cavill on this immediately. I’d watch this as a sitcom

Any planet with any sort of manufacturing is going to have some Ad Mech presence, so you can just have one of the local techpriests help with the maintenance of the marine's gear.

The chapter supplements from 2019 claim that your scenario is completely routine. I. The Ultramarines, specifically the fourth company has the job that you're describing. They despatch many very small units on missions like defence planning, joint exercises with partners forces, and the type of counterinsurgency and enforcement that you're talking about.

The Ultramarines use a battle company for this because the units are operating by themselves so they need a decent level of maturity.

Since it's completely routine for chapters to have some small squads on this type of mission, resupply is also routine. They have artificers. Anytime you have a unit of marines, no matter how small, you should assume that means a large number of serfs. They're an intrinsic part of deploying marines. For four marines you could easily have a staff of 60 serfs, as a complete guess. There are serfs for donning and doffing, serfs for weapon logistics, but also for their special dietary needs, and perhaps serfs related to the chapter cult. Those are just for the squad itself, since you've put them on someone else's vessel.

As for the backstory, every sector has a sector battlefleet, an administratum Lord Sector, forge worlds, and hierarchies for all the other agencies. Necessarily, they have a plenary process. A large percentage of chapters proactively participate in this. They collaborate to identify strategic goals, and divide up tasks on a voluntary basis.

There's no need for scare quotes like 'very politely asked,' there's no quid pro quo, there's no need for special justification. The chapter participates in this strategic planning, it perceives this shortfall in sector military readiness, and it despatches a minor force to help deal with the problem.

It would be interesting to have them as bodyguards. After reading the novel that had the rebellion on Terra by half the High Lords who were upset about Guiliman, the Custodes and human bring up some interesting points differentiating humans and Custodes from space marines. It is remarked upon, even when they meet such boring and uptight marines as the Imperial Fists, that they are bred for war and their temperament always seems just on the cusp of exploding into violence. Even more so when they meet the Minotaurs whom they feel they are about to go to battle with every time they walk in the room. This is different than the Custodes who were created specifically as guards and thus dont have the same teetering on exploding into violence feeling that Astartes have. Likely when novels are written from the Astartes point of view this goes away because to them, this is perfectly normal and they are always keyed up like this.

As to being used as body guards, likely only in extreme cases and only temporary. This would probably only happen in a theater of war. Most humans are uncomfortable around space marines as the novel I mentioned above clearly points out, even in places where they regularly work with Custodes. The humans that arent offput by them are generally very highly placed and then treat the marines as furniture and tools, rather than as people, and in these cases, they would be tools of intimidation at important meetings or negotiations. They arent bringing the marines the da' club for clout.

Aside from established garrison chapters where chapters are assigned to guard say, the Ghoul Stars, or the Sentinel Warder Chapters, in general, marines guard their own home worlds with minimal forces and thats about it. They are strike forces and dont have the numbers or resources for long term garrisons. Even in the above examples, they are active garrisons spending most of their time patrolling outlying systems and looking for trouble as opposed to sitting at a base waiting for trouble to come to them. Thats the Guard and its millions of troops' jobs.

Small exercises, advisement missions, tiny rotational teams here and there on special assignment, no doubt these exist all over the place. If it helps the Imperium without causing undo strain on the chapter then the marines in general will probably welcome the opportunity.

Another reason could be to acclimatise Brothers to being around Regular Smelly Hoomans.

Now, that would be dependant on Chapter, as not all really care about humans on the individual scale, only on protecting Humanity as a species.

Chapters like the Salamanders are noted for their “human touch”. And so there, I can see a five or ten year secondment to work with regular smelly hoomans could pay dividends. Something to remind the Marines of who it is they were elevated to defend.

It could also be a way to scope out potential new recruits, especially for Fleet Based Chapters who may not have set recruitment worlds, and so wouldn’t have set recruit testing grounds. Accompanying an official into the murky depths of a Hive World could be a way to find exactly the sort of rough and tough youths that might make for a decent recruit.